Make your plans now to spend a delightful fall weekend driving through the beautiful Lewis County, WA countryside, meandering along back roads while enjoying wonderful art, talking to the artists and watching them at work in their studios. Gather a carload of friends, share the gas, see how and where the artists work, find your favorite pieces of art and discover Southwest Washington.

The 12th Annual ARTrails tour will open with the Gala Reception on Friday, September 19, 2014 (4-8 pm) at the Exhibition Gallery in the downtown Centralia Historic Train Depot (210 Railroad Avenue, Centralia WA). One piece from each participating artist will be on display and for sale at the reception and will remain on display from September 19-28th from 10:00 to 5:00pm.

Then plan on visiting artist working studios which will be open from 10:00 to 5:00pm Saturday and Sunday on September 20-21 and 27-28. The Studio tour is free and self guided.The artwork you will get to see includes paintings, sculpture, glass, jewelry, pottery, mixed media, fiber art, carved wood, basketry, enameling, collage, and much more. Click here for the Tour Guide map and list of participating artists.

Be sure to come visit me at my studio where you can play with gorgeous colors of my pastels and create your own masterpiece! I am just 15 minutes east of I-5, a few miles north of Hwy 12 East. Come and visit while you enjoy the English flower garden and views of Mt. St. Helens from the studio!

Studio #20
482 Burnt Ridge Road
Onalaska, WA 98570
360-880-0663

If you have enjoyed this newsletter and my website, I encourage you to share them with your friends. I am trying to build a bigger audience for my work and can only succeed with the help of supporters like you. Also, in order to be notified when there is a new post, be sure to sign up on my blog where I post events, steps I take in creating my paintings and random thoughts and lessons learned!

I hope to see you in the studio!

I just finished a commission for a client who loves this photo I took of the view from my studio where my horse, Sweet Pea, plays a starring role.

Just for fun (and with her approval), I thought I would change the time of day to evening, when the sun slants across the pasture and highlights the trees while turning the rolling hills and Mt. St. Helens a glowing pink.

I started with a watercolor underpainting, then worked from the foreground back and finishing with the sky, which glows at this time of day. 

This was a fun and challenging painting and my client is looking forward to adding it to her collection!

Please be sure to stop by the Governor Hotel this month to see the Olympia Art League show. I was fortunate to have two paintings accepted by the juror, talented artist Kay Barnes. The opening reception is July 12th from 6:00 to 8:00.

And be sure to enjoy the fun at the Capital Lakefair Festival July 16 - 20!

Note: I attended the Opening Reception of the Olympia Art League Art Show and was thrilled to find that I had won Second Place with my pastel painting "Shining Bright"! A big thanks to Judge Kay Barnes for her kind comments and to the OAL for their generous monetary prize!

We had a wonderful time exhibiting at the "Arts of the Mountain" exhibit June 28th and 29th. Great live music, wonderful original art and dedicated art lovers who braved misty weather to enjoy the art.

I laid out my pastels and let people play with the colors and paint their own masterpieces. I was even brave enough to start a new painting there with all the visitors watching. I was shooting for reflections that invited you to dive in...

I am thrilled to have been invited to exhibit my artwork at the "Arts of the Mountain" Mount St. Helens celebration. Please plan on taking a beautiful drive to glorious Mount St. Helens, complete with art, music and food! Be sure to stop in and visit me at the Science and Learning Center at Coldwater Ridge this Saturday and Sunday, June 28th and 29th (10:00 am to 6:00 pm).

Be sure to stop along the way at the five different venues displaying the jewelry, sculpture and paintings of talented Northwest artists (click here for more event details). For examples of the beautiful art you will get to see on your way to Mount St. Helens, click here.

If you have enjoyed this newsletter and my website, I encourage you to share them with your friends. I am trying to build a bigger audience for my work and can only succeed with the help of supporters like you. Also, be sure to sign up on my blog so you will be notified when there is a new post. Thank you!

Looking forward to seeing you at Mount St. Helens!

Another lesson reinforced at the Taos Intensive Studies Seminar (see blog post dated 5/6/14) was that too much detail ruins many paintings - look at what is most important and leave the rest out.

My original painting based on this photo I took at Mt. Rainer included detailed trees in the background, the mountain and the cloud. I was asked, "What is it that draws you to this subject?" My answer was, "The colors". "Then gray the rest down" was the advice (twice!). And so I did (though it was really hard to obliterate what I had labored on so carefully!) and darned if it didn't make for a better painting!

In April, 2014 I was fortunate to be able to attend the 18th Annual Intensive Studies Seminar in Taos, NM with 79 talented artists, all intent on moving out of their artistic comfort zones. For nine days we painted, using our favorite mediums,  assisted, critiqued and inspired by our teachers, Fran Larsen, Skip Lawrence, Christopher Schink and Katherine Chang Liu (www.isstaos.com). What a wonderful experience - the energy in the room was palpable!


Focusing on the "Why" we create art vs. the "How" to create art, this workshop gave me many lessons to practice. The first was making my art about expression, not representation ("Paint the smell, not the flower."). We were encouraged to start with an idea, a scene, a feeling in our gut that needed to be expressed, then express it with authority; eliminating all details that did not directly aid in that expression. This is not as easy as it sounds!

It was suggested that we give our piece, before starting it, a generic title that gives voice to what we wanted to convey and to use as a litmus test when tempted to add unnecessary details.  I wanted to express the power of the ocean (intimidating to me being a sinker vs. a swimmer!) so I named my piece "Power". Did I succeed in painting the force and chaotic nature of the surf?

In September, 2007, I took my sister and two 82 year old friends (who had been sorority sisters in college and were great fun) on a week sailing trip complete with a skipper who cooked our meals. We sailed through the San Juan Islands and Gulf Islands off of Washington and British Columbia.

We anchored in this pristine cove and I fell in love with its quiet serenity.

I played with the photo for awhile and finally felt the composition worked best in a narrower format that would draw your attention to the dramatic light on the rocks.

Starting the painting with a watercolor underpainting, I enjoyed playing with the serendipitous drips and runs. Then I blocked in the colors in pastel, working at setting the values (lights and darks) since it is all about dramatic contrast.

I struggled with the rocks, redoing them several times because they kept wanting to look like gray hotdogs! It is tricky to get the rock overhang to feel like it is coming out of the page towards you. I hope you like it!